


Listen to My Beating Heart

by BiSpaceCadet



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A lot of cursing, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), I haven't written fanfics in years, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, Lance pretty much leaves Voltron, Langst, My First Work in This Fandom, Shiro and Keith are brothers, beautiful alien women, i mean me trying to write angst, let Lance be loved, plus on ao3 in general, so be prepared for that, takes place sometime during season 2 before Shiro goes poof, this might become klance but idk yet, we'll see 'bout that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 22:19:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10558622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BiSpaceCadet/pseuds/BiSpaceCadet
Summary: His team was shouting in joy. Or was it distress? Maybe they won. No doubt because he was finally out of the picture. His eyes started to slip shut, he couldn't hold them open. He wondered if they had noticed he was gone. What if was he going to die? Would they bury him here, or take him back to his family? Would they even bury him? Or would they just leave him here after they got Blue. She was the only reason he was apart of this team anyway.  They need her.Or Lance is feeling useless, in the way, like a seventh wheel.   **On Hiatus**





	1. Are You Just Going to Watch Me Burn?

_Fuck. I fucked up again._

Blue is falling fast through the planet’s atmosphere, all Lance can see around him is the blur of the sky. Squeezing his eyes shut he tries to force his heart out of his throat; he can hear his teammates still fighting against the Galra through the coms.

_Of course they would still be fighting. They don’t have time to pay attention to me. We were here for one reason, and now they have to make up for my mistakes._

Their voices echo inside his helmet, their yelling, their cheers, their muttered curses. It’s a constant reminder of his stupidity. He just had to try to show off, to prove himself, and now look at where that’s gotten him. He rips his helmet off, in hindsight that was a terrible idea, and slaps his palms against his ears.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up,” he mutters between clenched teeth.

Blue whimpers in the back of his mind and his eyes fly open, “Oh god, Blue,” he yells reaching for the controls he’d abandoned.

Blue was getting dangerously close to the ground, she wasn't stopping, she wasn't responding.

“C’mon baby, answer me,” Lance pulls up on her controls, his knuckles turning white, “I know I messed up, mi vida, but please, _please_.”

He shouldn’t have flown her in front of those fighter ships; he should have just let Keith deal with them. Dios knows that Keith could’ve dealt with them better. Keith wouldn’t have gotten shot, he wouldn’t have been knocked out into the pull of the planet, and he wouldn’t have lost control of his lion.

The red malfunction lights are hurting Lance’s eyes, and as he closes them, Blue hits the ground. Hard. She rams into trees and rocks, the impact of the crash throws Lance out of his seat and into her control panel. Pain flashes behind his eyes like fireworks, his head slammed against the screens. He falls to the floor, his legs knocking against the pilot seat, once Blue finally skids to a stop.

He can’t see outside the cockpit anymore because Blue’s vision has shut down, casting him into darkness. His head and back hurt, a lot. His vision is swimming and the pitch black inside his lion starts to swirl and form colors that aren’t really there.

The back of his head is oddly warm and sticky, and Lance squints trying to see _something_. He can sort of make out his helmet laying abandoned a few inches away from him. Well, at least that’s what he thinks it is.

He could make out crackling voices coming from it. His head was swirling too much for anything to be clear, but it sounded like his team was shouting in joy. Or was it distress? Maybe they won. No doubt because he was finally out of the picture.

His eyes start to slip shut, and he can’t hold them open. He wonders if they’ve noticed he was gone. What if he was going to die? Would they bury him here or take his body back to his family? Would they even bury him?

They probably wouldn't even come down if it wasn't for Blue. They need her. Maybe it would be okay if he just slept for a while. His team seemed to be okay without him.

~

_“Keith. How is your end looking?”_ Shiro’s voice crackled over the intercom as Red fired another shot at the fighter ship under her.

“We’re on our last fighter, Shiro,” he said glancing at his brother’s face on the screen.

_“Good, Pidge and I have almost finished taking down the command center,”_ Keith could see Black’s jaw blade out of the corner of his eye. The main ship was damaged with tree roots sticking out of it, and gaping holes in its side.

“Nice. What about Hunk?” the fighter ship collapsed in on itself and Keith turned Red around, heading back towards Shiro and Pidge.

_“I…I can’t find Blue, at least not from the air. The trees are too thick, and she must be pretty damaged cause I’m not getting any signal from her either,”_ Hunk’s face popped onto the screen next to Shiro’s, his brow was creased with worry.

Keith bit his lip, “Don’t worry, buddy, I bet Lance is fine. He’s only been gone a few minutes. We’ll find him.”

_“Yeah, his skull’s too thick to take any real damage after all,”_ Pidge added her face appearing above the other two’s. Keith rolled his eyes.

_“Pidge, cut it out. Now’s not the time to be making jokes, one of our teammates could be seriously injured,”_ Shiro frowned at where Keith guessed Pidge’s face was on his end. She muttered an apology under her breath as the main ship finally broke down with a mechanical groan.

_“Alright, Paladins,”_ Allura and Coran were the last to appear on Red’s monitor, _“now that the Galra has been dealt with come back to the castle. We need to discuss how we’re going to find Lance.”_ The team echoed back affirmatives and Keith turned Red around to her hangar.

~

Lance can’t tell if it had been hours or minutes since he had passed out, everything was achy and his mouth feels like it’s been filled with cotton. His head is itchy, his back aches, and the Paladin armor is making him sweaty. He groans and cracks open his eyes, _holy shit the sky is bright_ , and it takes a minute to adjust before he opens them fully. He stares blankly at the lilac sky above him and wrinkles his brow, he doesn’t remember being outside.

_Shit!_

Lance shot up, white hot pain sears from his head down his spine. A short gasp escapes him as he lifts his hand to the back of his head. A startled voice speaks quickly in an unfamiliar language, and a cold hand lays him down again. He stiffens and turns to see a woman with dark grey skin seating on the ground next to him.

“…Damn, are you religious because you’re the answer to all my prayers…” Lance mutters as he looks at the alien woman with heavy eyes.

The woman brings a hand to her mouth to cover a short chuckle. Her black eyes shine with mirth, but there is also a hint of worry as she looks at him again. Jesus, he probably looks like shit. That crash was pretty bad… Wait, crash. Lance chokes on his own spit in his panic as he flails his arms at the woman holding him down with a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Blue! Where’s my lion? Who are you? What do you want from me? Where am I? Is the battle over?” The rapid fire questions spill out of his mouth not giving the alien any chance to answer. He looks to the sky with his last question, but he doesn’t see any ships or explosions.

The woman just watches him silently picking up a wet cloth from it had fallen onto his lap and holds it to his forehead. “You are on the planet Berus, I am Tsusso, and I have not seen a warship in the sky for hours.”

Lance tries to sit up again, “I need to get back to my team, what if they need me?” He shakes his head to shoo the negative thoughts away, they would need him, right?

“Worry not, Paladin. You are safe, they cannot hurt you any longer,” her voice was like water in a cave -smooth but distant like an echo.

“You mean the Galra?” Lance looks into her black eyes and follows the white speckles on the sides of her face. She was beautiful.

“No, the other Paladins of Voltron,” she says with such finality Lance is almost too intimidated to question her, almost.

“What? My team would never hurt me,” Lance lifts himself onto his elbows, he can feel the strain of his ribs, but it hurts less than completely sitting up.

“You cannot lie to me, Paladin,” she holds his gaze as if she can see into his very soul, “Don't worry, I won't harm you.” Lance flinches and looks away from her.

_How the hell do I get out of here? I need to get back to Blue._

“I understand your hesitancy, Paladin,” Lance shoots her a suspicious look, “my race is very in tune with emotions, and it can be… unnerving,” she says.

“Well, that’s… creepy, but I need to get back to my lion. To my team,” Lance tilts his head up to see a red sun setting, but another still high in the sky.

The alien watches the first sunset with Lance for a few silent moments before speaking, “I don’t believe your team will help your emotional state, Paladin.”

Lance whips his head towards her, “Why would you say that? The other Paladins are great people.”

“Well, you just said it yourself, ‘the other Paladins’. Why would you not include yourself in that?” Tsusso looks Lance in the eye, “They may not be harming you physically, but your pain and self-loathing is so strong that I felt it while you were falling to the ground.”

Lance mouth drops, “N-no, you've got it all wrong. You don’t… you don’t know me. I’m the only one who causes trouble. I-I’m the one in the way. I’m the useless Paladin.”

She raises a brow bone, since she didn’t have a single hair on her face. “Paladin, surely you couldn't simply believe this without some kind of push from others. They must have done something to make you feel the need to punish yourself.”

Lance swallows hard, well she's not wrong.

_No, it’s always been me. They haven’t done anything. I’m the problem, I’m the failure, I’m the useless one, I’m the expendable one. I am._

“There is no longer any reason for you to feel this way anymore Paladin; you can stay with my tribe for as long as you need. We will care for you,” her eyes crinkle as she smiles. It reminds Lance of the way his mother and older sisters smile. Dios, he misses them so much.

Lance stays silent. It does sound nice, to stay somewhere, and maybe even be appreciated. To help out, and have that help be appreciated. He won't get in the way of his team anymore. It's not like they’ve come looking for him, Tsusso said it'd been hours.

_I’m not even that helpful. I never do anything but cause trouble. They always do better when I’m not around. I’m not a hero._

If he leaves Shiro and Allura won't look at him with disappointment anymore. He won't have to deal with Pidge’s harsh comments or Keith's insults. He’d miss Coran and Hunk, though. Hunk’s hugs, that have been becoming more and more infrequent, and Coran’s comforting hand on his shoulder, the weight of which has been getting heavier. He'd miss Blue. Shit, he’d miss Blue; she’s the first one to really understand him, to believe in him. Though, as Allura likes to remind him, she is the most accepting lion. She could easily find another -better- pilot.

_I can’t leave Voltron. There is universe to save, my family to protect. I need to stay with the team, no matter what. It’s my responsibility._

“I, uh, I’m not sure. The universe n-needs a Blue Paladin, even a useless one,” she nods; the smile still soft on her face.

“You are not useless, Paladin,” her eyes soften, “even a stranger, such as I, can see that.” Lance gives her a wary smile, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Now,” her tone suddenly serious, “I am unsure of the extent of your injuries, and if you are willing I would like to take you back to see my village healer.”

“I think that would be okay,” he chokes up a laugh, “don’t want to die on an alien planet now do I?” Tsusso doesn’t laugh.

“I’m Lance, by the way,” he says, “it’s awkward that you keep calling me Paladin.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Lance,” she removes the wet cloth sticking to his forehead, it’s warm now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm terrible because I have't updated in literal months, but I rewrote Chapter 1 and 2? I'll try to update more often because I really do like this story, but I work like 36 hours a week and college is starting up again soon so we'll see.


	2. I Know You Don't Want Me Here

“You said you hadn’t seen ships for a few hours, no?” Lance asks his eyes on the sky.

“That is correct, it has been around six hours since the last explosion, and four since I pulled you out of your lion,” Tsusso says, laying fresh herbs on a cloth. She rolled up the rough fabric, careful not to crush the plants. Lance fidgets, his hands tapping against the soft dirt around him. His mind has been flying through what might be happening to his team above the atmosphere. Were they okay? Had they won? Have they come looking for him yet?

“Tsusso?” She hums in response, placing the rolled herbs into a basket with various kinds of fruits and berries. Or at least what he thinks are fruits and berries. Lance has never seen these kinds before; they are all dull colors and look almost dead. They’re kind of weird, but he shouldn’t be surprised. He is on another planet after all.

“I, uh, really need to check on Blue. Can you take me to her?” He pinches some dirt between his fingers, rolling it. He doesn’t even know how far away from her they are, but he can’t just leave his lion unattended like this. What would Allura say? Dios, she would be so angry. Blue’s damaged and Lance is sitting on his ass with a beautiful lady worrying about himself. Allura would yell at him, Allura would lecture him, Allura would replace him.

_No. Stop, don’t think about her. Worry about Blue._

Tsusso’s multiple braids fall off her shoulder as she bends to grab a round, brown fruit from the basket, “Your lion? I understand, your concern for her is evident, but with your injuries I believe you should see our healer as soon as possible.”

She pulls a small, black knife from its holder on her arm, and begins to cut the fruit. Lance gapes at the neon pink and purple inside. He expected it to be just as plain on the inside like it was on the outside. She starts to hand him pieces as she cuts them off, “Don’t worry, Lance, it’s perfectly safe. This one is called **kajahada.** ”

Lance takes the piece from her and looks at it a moment before shrugging and popping it into his mouth. He nearly moans at the taste, “Oh wow, this is delicious. It tastes almost exactly like raspberry lemonade.”

Tsusso chuckles behind her hand again at him, she hands him another slice and Lance devours it immediately. She keeps handing him pieces and he keeps eating them until they’ve gone through two of the fruits and Lance remembers.

“I really need to see Blue,” Lance’s hands start moving with his words, “I need to make sure she’s okay. It’s all my fault we crashed, and now she’s hurt, and I mean I guess she’s not actually hurt technically because she’s a giant metal robot, but still. I need to, I-”

Tsusso places her fingers on Lance’s cheek, “Breathe with me Lance, you are panicking. Breathe.” She leans her forehead against Lance’s and releases cold breathes against his face. He digs his fingers into the dirt, curling and uncurling them. They sit in silence for a few more minutes, until Lance’s breathing calms down.

He hadn’t even noticed he was starting to panic. Tsusso lifts her head from his and sits back to stare at him. “You are a very fragile being, Lance. I do not understand how go through life with all that pain,” she shakes her head sadly.

“I will check your head wound once more before we head off to your lion. It is not far from here,” Lance nodded once as she moved behind him.

She touches his head gingerly and Lance winces slightly, “How bad is it?” Tsusso stays silent a few moments as she moves his hair away from the wound and turns his head this way and that.

“It has stopped bleeding, but we should head to the village soon after we see your lion. I am afraid that if we leave it unattended for much longer it will become infected,” she replies, re-wrapping the wound.

Lance swallows hard, “We, uh, should head out now then, I really don’t want an infected head wound,” he stutters out a laugh.

Tsusso stands and holds her hand out for Lance, as she helps him up he notices how warm his skin tone looks against her grey fingers. Lance lets out a yelp as he stands; his back muscles feel like a hand’s twisted up in his tendons –they’re so tight. By the time Lance is steady on his feet Tsusso had grabbed her basket and was already walking off through the trees.

“Paladin, we must hurry, the second sun will be setting soon,” Lance scurried off after her into leaves.

~

Keith walked into the bridge to find everyone else already there. “Keith,” Shiro turned as soon as he had heard the automatic doors open, “you only missed a little bit. Sit down.” It wasn’t a question. Keith sat, knowing when Shiro started using imperative sentences that he was stressed. Shiro took a deep breath and ruffled his hair, “Alright, Hunk continue.”

Hunk was sitting in his chair fiddling with a little blue box with knobs and buttons, “So, I circled above the planet’s atmosphere, but it was too thick for my sensors to really pick up on anything. Everything just kept getting scrambled-“

“But we are 99.9%% positive Lance and Blue are on the surface of this planet, Berus,” Pidge jumped in pulling up a hologram of the planet they were currently orbiting.

“What about that other 0.01%? I don’t like the sound of that,” Keith said. He looked out at the teal planet and felt a twisting in his gut.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. It’s just something researches say just in case something _does_ go wrong,” Keith shot them a look. “Okay, okay, sheesh. We are 100% positive Lance is down there.”

Everyone seemed to visibly relax at that, Keith guesses that 0.01% really does matter.

“Okay, so our scanners get scrambled with the atmosphere so how’re we gonna find Lance?”

Pidge shrugged, “Obviously we have to go to the surface to get a better signal.”

Shiro clapped his hands, it reminded Keith of a kindergarten teacher he once had, “Alright, back to the Lions let’s go get our Blue Paladin.”

~

It takes them only ten minutes to reach Blue, who is still smashed against the boulder that had thrown Lance out of his seat. She’s lying on her side with her legs splayed out in an almost pathetic position. The top of her head is bent at an awkward angle with her mouth hanging open.

_I was wondering how Tsusso could’ve gotten me out of Blue. Dios mio, anyone could get in with her mouth open like that. Oh, Blue._

Blue’s particle barrier is up, but it's flickering like a glitch in a video game. Lance walks up to the barrier and puts his hands on it, “Oh, mi amor, I’m so sorry.”

He pushes against the barrier, but even with it glitching it wasn't letting him through. “Let me in, Baby Blue. I’m here to help,” Lance walks along the perimeter trying to find a way in, “I can’t believe I did this to you, Jesus.”

Tsusso watches as this strange boy paces along the blue shield, his anguish swamping her senses like thick humidity. He repeatedly knocks on the shield, pleading with the metal beast, apologizing. Tsusso looks past his head at the lion; this is part of the great warrior she has been told about since her childhood, a mighty legend that is now sitting in the dirt with dark eyes and broken armor.

Tsusso closes her eyes and focuses past Lance’s overwhelming feelings towards the silent beast. At first she feels a block, like the technology of the lion had set up a barrier around its mind, and as she sends out waves of calming energy slowly the wall opens. Blue no longer looks like a weapon, but an injured animal backed into a corner. She is hurt and afraid.

“Please, please, please let me in,” Lance cries and pounds against the barrier, “Blue, baby, it’s me. It’s Lance.” He tangles his fingers in his hair, pulling, she doesn’t want him anymore. He’s no longer worthy to be a Paladin, he’s the one who did this to her, he’s the one who can’t follow a plan, an order. He just had to try and show off didn’t he? Fuck, now he’s never getting back to Earth, to his familia, he’s never going to be able to prove himself. He knew from the beginning he wouldn’t be able to do this. He was a cargo pilot. He failed all the simulators. The only reason he made it as a fighter pilot was because Keith was kicked out. He’s worthless. Worthless.

_Lance had slipped up again during training; the team was working on blocking when he missed a laser that hit Keith in the back. Keith had let out a yelp when the floor opened and swallowed him which caught Lance’s attention and then he too was hit. He was already cursing himself by the time he fell into the darkness beneath the training deck._

_Lance landed on his ass, and immediately was met with the frown of his teammate. “Wow, great job Lance,” Keith said crossing his arms and jutting his hip out, “that’s the third time this week you’ve fucked up that exercise.”_

_“Yeah, well, sorry I get distracted,” Lance said hiking his shoulders up to his ears. He wasn’t in the mood to be yelled at; it was already a shitty day so far, and it was only 10:30. His ADHD had been a dick today, he couldn’t keep one thought in his head for longer than a second, and his body wouldn’t stop jerking._

_“You need to work on that because when we’re in battle and you get distracted it could get one, or all, of us killed,” Keith had his lips pulled up in a snarl._

_“I know that! I know that…” Lance defended._

_“It doesn’t seem like it, for fuck’s sake get your act together, right now you’re really not living up to the Blue Paladin’s name,” and with that stabbing remark Keith turned on his heel and stomped out of the room._

_“You think I don’t know that too?” Lance screamed after his teammate, who was already long gone._

Normally, Blue would’ve been sending Lance calming purrs, curling up in his mind, warm like a kitten. She’s usually the one to bring him out of these spirals, yet now she’s the cause of one.

“-aladin… Lance… LANCE,” Lance is harshly pulled from the dark ocean of his mind, almost like someone grabbed a hold of his brain and was yanking him out of the water. He looks up into pitch eyes, “You are making your wound bleed again.” It’s Tsusso. Her hands are on his gently prying, now bloody, fingers out of his hair.

“Lance, I know how you are feeling,” she lays his hand onto his lap, wrapping it softly in hers.

_When had I sat down?_

“But you need to believe me when I say Blue has not forgotten you, she is simply confused. Her mind is very mixed up right now, most likely from the damage she took during the crash,” she tries to explain.

All Lance is hearing however is, “I did this to her.”

“No, Lance, this was an accident, she knows this,” Tsusso wipes a stray tear from his face he didn’t know was there, “You need to trust her love for you.”

Lance nods, though his head was screaming at him that she’s lying.

Tsusso looks at him warily -she knows that he didn’t believe her-, but she didn’t say anything else on the matter.

“We need to get you back to the village, just so we can get your wound fixed and some food. You must be starving, two measly pieces of fruit is not enough,” she stands and holds out her hands for him once more, “Come we can return to her after you have been treated.” Lance nods and stands.

Tsusso leads the way back to the trees as Lance looks back at Blue once more, “I’ll be back, mi vida.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you think it's good? Comment. Do you think it's bad? Comment. Start a debate.
> 
> I rewrote this chapter too so like, re-read it maybe? I added a few more things to help the story move along better.
> 
> Chapter Title from 6/10 by dodie clark. She is my actual favorite artist right now, so go check her out on YouTube at doddleoddle. Her songs are the best angst songs.


	3. A Home Where I Might Belong

Lance’s head is anywhere but on Berus. He can't stop thinking about Blue, about his team. He watches his feet drag through the dirt, his white boots now brown with bits of dried blood stuck to them. He’s so far inside his own head he doesn’t see the giant tree root sticking out of the ground in an arch.

His forehead smacks against rough bark, “Coño,” he curses, “why is this tree root so large?”

He rubs his forehead as he hears a muffled giggle and looks over the root to see Tsusso standing on the other side with a hand over her mouth. Her eyes are creased with her smile, and Lance blushes. He had totally run into a tree, and she had been watching the whole time. Talk about embarrassing.

“Hey,” he sticks his nose in the air, “like you've never run into a tree before.”

She laughs again, this time free and open, “In fact, Paladin, I have not.”

Lance ducks under the root and his face burns. Tsusso watches him before she turns around and keeps walking. They walk in silence a moment longer, ducking under vines and pushing away giant flowers. He hasn’t been paying attention to the world around him for the past few hours; until he sees a hoof print in the dirt as big as a car.

“Holy shit,” Tsusso flinches at Lance’s sudden outburst and whips around to see him standing with his arms in the air. “This hoof print is huge! Why is it so huge?” he waves his hands at Tsusso and she laughs again.

“I do not know what size creatures you have on your home planet, but this is from a normal sized **hidume** ,” she says walking over to him.

Lance’s mouth drops and he looks between the print and her, “Normal? Jodido…”

Tsusso tilts her head at him, “What do those words mean?”

Lance looks up at her, she’s a few inches taller than him, “What word- oh! It’s Spanish, on Earth we have multiple languages and Español is the one I was raised speaking.”

“Interesting,” she says, “my people all speak one language. Which it seems that you also speak on Earth.”

Lance rubs his chin, “Yeah, it’s weird how so many planets we’ve been to speak the same language…”

“Let us continue on Lance, there will be plenty of time to ponder the universe later,” Lance nods and takes a few more glances at the print before falling into step beside her.

Earlier, when Blue was falling through the atmosphere all Lance could see were the flames around his lion. Before the crash he had noticed the planet was mostly a teal ocean with speckles of islands, but he hadn't truly taken it in. He had been focusing on the mission and the battle, Keith would’ve been shocked.

“Are all the trees this big,” Lance interrupts the sounds of the forest once again. Tsusso looks over at him and her braids move with her head. Lance meets her eyes for a second before they go back to the massive trunks around him.

“Are the trees smaller on your home planet?” She asks in return. Lance tilts his head way back to look towards the tips of the trees. It was like that one time his family had visited New York City in America; his siblings and him had tried to see the tops of the skyscrapers, but all it managed to do was make them dizzy.

“Yeah,” he says looking back down and blinking a few times, “I guess you wouldn’t know, but our tallest trees are like a quarter of the size of these.”

Tsusso’s eyes widen, “They are that small? Where do your people sleep?”

“We,” Lance snorts at the look on her face, “we build houses out of chopped down trees and live in those.”

Tsusso’s face of shock quickly turns into disgust, “Your kind kills trees? That is monstrous.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

~

“Pidge,” Keith starts.

“Ugh,” they reply before he even thinks of finishing his sentence, “I told you already, Keith.”

“Yeah, but _why_ aren’t we getting any signals from Blue?” Pidge groans again and smacks her forehead against the device in her hand.

“Please explain Pidge,” Shiro says softly, “we aren’t all geniuses.”

“Fine, but only cause Space Dad asked-“

“Don’t call me that.”

“Anyways,” Pidge fixes their glasses and points to the screen of their device, “this is a hand-held tracker I made that picks up the energy signatures of the lions. It doesn’t work long distance, but on the ground to should be able sense Blue from at least 15 miles away.”

Keith taps his foot against the black sand of the beach, “Okay and why aren’t we finding Blue? We’re pretty much right under where we were battling.”

“That’s the thing Keithy-boy-“

“What’s with that dumb nickname?”

“-you see we are getting some kind of signal from Blue, but it’s weird” Pidge says pointing to the blue blip on the screen. It was fading in and out and jumping around to different spots.

“It’s scattered around this area,” Hunk says pointing to the right of the screen, “so we figured we’d check out this area because this is where Blue’s signature tends to bounce around.”

“Currently we’re right here,” Pidge says tapping the screen more towards the left.

“So,” Keith says grinding his teeth, “we’re guessing.”

“I mean not really, but yeah,” Hunk shrugs.

“How long is it going to take to find Lance this way,” Keith growls.

Shiro comes up behind his little brother and puts a hand on his shoulder, “Keith, I know you’re worried, but we’re doing the best we can with what we have.”

“He could be seriously hurt,” Keith moves out from Shiro’s grasp and turns to look him in the eyes, “What if he’s bleeding out or he has a concussion?” Shiro could see the fear in Keith’s eyes. His brother was right, Lance could be in trouble and the longer they took to find him the more at risk he was. And the more likely it would be that they would have to find a new Paladin.

“Pidge, is there any way to narrow down the search? Or to make it go faster?”

Pidge grins, “I have a few ideas.”

~

Lance’s jaw drops when they finally reach the edge of the village, “Holy shit.”

He stops as they come to the giant flowers the size of apple trees acting as a fence at the base of a skyscraper tree. He looks up, and ignores the headache he gets from looking so far above himself. He can see lights coming from holes in the tree. The tree had basically been turned into an apartment building. Tsusso grins at him as she pushes some of her braids behind her ear and pulls aside some tall blades of grass. Instantly he hears laughter like bells coming from inside.

Tsusso takes his arms and pulls him after her through the flowers and grass into the tree. Lance for a second expects to be pulled face first into rough bark, but he instead trips into a large room with an incredibly high ceiling. The village center is located in the hollow base of the tree; he can see a fire pit with dying embers surrounded by mushrooms the size of chairs. There are little girls sitting on them, so Lance safely assumes they _are_ mushroom chairs.

“Welcome to Waena village,” Tsusso says as she spreads her arms wide to show off her home.

“It’s beautiful,” Lance says his eyes darting around trying to absorb all he can.

“Yes,” Tsusso says a soft smile on her face which turns into a worried frown as she looks at him. He can feel the crusty blood on the back of his head, and he think it might’ve started bleeding again because it felt warm.

“We need to take you to see our healer,” she says and Lance chuckles nervously. She gingerly grabs his shoulder and starts steering him towards the thick column in the middle of the village. It was as if the hollow trunk stopped growing for a few years only to continue.

Inside were cots separated by curtains of giant leaves, back rooms where Lance assumed more serious treatments were handled, and two women with black hair treating the scuffed knees of a few children.

As soon as Tsusso enters the woman with ankle-length, thick, black hair stands and turns to them, “Welcome home, daughter. I hope your excursion went well.”

Tsusso bows slightly to her mother, the woman seems to radiate power and Lance flinches as she turns her gaze to him. She walks closer, her long skirt swishing. Lance bows his head and lets her look at him in silence for a few minutes.

“Lift your head, child,” Tsusso’s mother speaks her voice like molten chocolate. Lance raises his head to meet her eyes, his blue seemed almost weak in comparison to her deep black.

“We must treat your wounds, young Paladin,” Lance’s jobs drop and he opens his mouth. “I have been around a very long time, I recognize the symbol of the Defenders of the Universe,” she says and lightly taps the symbol on the chest of Lance’s armor.

“But Voltron has been missing for 10, 000 years? Only recently did I become a Paladin,” Lance’s unspoken question echoed around the infirmary.

“What can I say,” she says and a grin grows on her face, “I’m very old.”

Lance snorts; he likes this lady a lot. He lets her guide him to sit on one of the cots, as she helps him sit the blue crystal hanging in front of her forehead catches the light. She instructs him to take off his armor and then take off the skin tight black undershirt off.

“Wow, already asking me to strip,” Lance says as he peels the shirt off his skin, “at least tell me your name first.”

“I am Tekita, and I am the head healer of this village,” she says laughing at his dirty joke.

“And by that she means she’s the big boss of this little community,” a new voice startles Lance and he jumps as Tekita tries to listen to his heartbeat. This earns him a light slap on the arm, a way to tell him to stay still.

Lance looks up at the new person; it was the girl fixing up the scrapes on the children from earlier. She has wavy hair that hangs loosely framing her face. She’s wearing a crystal in the same manner as Tekita, but hers is purple.

“Welcome to Waena, alien,” she laughs and bows her head in greeting to him, “I’m Reeta, healer-in-training and older sister to this child.” She leans over and tugs lightly on Tsusso’s braids.

“It’s nice to meet you all I’m Lance Rodríguez”

They all watch as Tekita continues her tests on him. Tsusso tells her mother about how she found Lance as Tekita prods, pokes, listens, and observes until she finally steps away. Lance looks up at her to boast about his health, but the look of fury on her face stops him short.

“You, Paladin, should not be walking around,” she turns to Reeta and tells her a few things and Reeta rushes away, “Tsusso I’m glad you brought him to me when you did.”

Lance’s confused, “But I feel fine? Why are you so worried?”

Tekita shakes her head and pulls his eyes wide to look into them, “You, my child, are experiencing adrenaline. You may not believe so, but if what Tsusso has told me is true you have been in shock for the past few hours.”

Lance gulps, it’s true he hadn’t really been feeling any pain even though he knows he had been tossed around the cockpit. He’d been starting to hurt more the closer they got to the village, and the more tired he became.

“You have one broken and three bruised ribs, a bruised shin, a large abrasion on the back of your head that will require sutures, and a bruised spine. It’s a miracle you don’t have a concussion or a broken limb.” Tekita says as Reeta runs back into the room with bandages, jars of glowing liquid, and a needle with thick thread.

“Now lay on your stomach, Lance, I must stitch your head wound.”

~

_If you’ve never had a needle pierce your head without any kind of drugs in your system, as your body is all out of adrenaline then you’ve never felt pain._ Lance thinks to himself as he curls up on the cot provided for him in the infirmary.

Tekita wasn’t kidding when she said they had come to her right on time, he had apparently lost a lot of blood. It’s starting to hit him hard now that he wasn’t running through an unfamiliar forest after crashing onto a foreign planet. He’s exhausted, but he can’t sleep because his ribs are aching and it hurts to breathe, and he can’t lie on his back because his fucking _spine_ is bruised. He’d been turning and hurting for the past 4 hours, and he just can’t sleep.

Earlier Tsusso had brought him a bowl of mashed **parithe** which was like poi from Hawaii. It was thick, slightly chunky, and neon green. When he first saw the color he thought she had brought him a bowl of food goo, but this stuff tasted way better than that mucus.

Lance lies on his left side, this way he was only laying on one bruised rib instead of two and a broken one. He stares at the leaf partition hiding him from anyone else in the room, shit he misses his team.

The women are all really nice here (he had found out from Reeta that the Berusans are all physically female –at least by human standards). They had instantly welcomed him, helped him, fed him, and clothed him. Yet, he can’t shake the feeling of longing in his gut. He kept picturing Hunk’s open arms and wide grin, Pidge’s devious smile, Shiro’s beefy bod, Coran’s crazy uncle attitude, the Princess, Keith...

He falls into a restless, pain clouded sleep.

~

“Okay, team, let’s make camp out here for the night,” Shiro says as they come to a stop near a giant boulder. He looked up into the sky at the two moons bright in the sky. They had been searching for Lance for hours, but the time seemed to drag. It seemed like they’d only accomplished a few minutes of work instead of hours and hours.

He looked at his team, Pidge is settling down with her tablet, sitting against the stem of a large, blue rose. Hunk is huddled around a few twigs trying to start a fire with his blaster. Keith is sitting on the floor, back against the boulder, his arms crossed in anger.

Shiro sighs and walks over to sit next to him, “what’s going on little brother?”

Keith looks to the ground, “we should still be looking for him.”

“I know how you’re feeling Keith, but if we are all exhausted we’ll just waste more time and take longer to find him. I promise we’ll only rest for a few hours before we start up again.

Keith’s frown deepens but he nods looking up at the moons, “will we get to him in time?”

Shiro squeezes Keith’s shoulder, “I promise you I will make sure of it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the like 4 month hiatus :V I work a lot to pay for college, so I don't have a lot of free time. Also SEASON 3 WAS SO AMAZING! Like all the Klance made me die <3
> 
> PS. I rewrote/added things to the first two chapters, so I would at least skim through them once again so that the story makes a wee bit more sense.


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